


Everything Lost Come Back to Me

by notquiteaphoenix



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blind Soldier: 76 | Jack Morrison, Established Relationship, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 19:27:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12754671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notquiteaphoenix/pseuds/notquiteaphoenix
Summary: Gabriel can't quite believe it.Can't believe Jack reallymeansthe words.Not after all this time.





	Everything Lost Come Back to Me

Jack’s the one to propose, completely blindsiding Gabriel.

They are old, with so much violence between them and just barely into their armistice. Sure, the dinner was nice, the beach view is great, and Gabriel hasn’t had a night like this in decades, had been so sure that dates like this are completely out of his Post-Zurich world.

(He’s a monster, after all. Moira’s experiments just revealed it.)

So when Jack goes to one knee and asks, he doesn’t say yes, he says,

“What the fuck, Jack?!”

“Gabriel, will you marry me?” Jack asks again, smile soft as if they are talking about something simple like favorite guns or best memories of Before.

Gabriel stares at the ring and then at Jack. Jack looks up at him, visorless and sightless, like Gabriel is something to be trusted, something to wait and hope for.

Gabriel reaches out, not quite believing even as he touches the metal.

He can’t take this. He can’t take Jack’s softness or the echo of old dreams or whatever this even means.

He shadowsteps away, breaking record distance to get away from Jack.

(Gabriel takes the ring with him.)

 

* * *

 

Jack finds him days later in the Gibraltar base. Gabriel doesn’t think Jack meant to intrude from the way he hesitates in the doorway. Gabriel is _not_ hiding, he would choose somewhere other than their shared quarters if he meant to, even if he is fairly sure Jack should be in Brazil for another two days.

Gabriel closes his fist over the ring. There is no way Jack doesn’t know he has it but Gabriel feels vaguely guilty.

Which is stupid, the ring is _his_ isn’t it?

“Can I come in?” Jack asks, his expression masked by both his visor and exhaustion.

“It’s your room too.” Gabriel gestures aimlessly from the bed. He’s not taken any new missions in the last week and has been lazing about in an old Lakers tee and sweatpants.

Gabriel’s technically pushing his late fifties these days. He deserves a break.

Jack heads over to a dresser, stripping his body armor and changing into comfortable clothes. (Gabriel isn’t sure it those are his own or not, he didn’t exactly bother taking the time to separate when he tossed all of their left behind clothes in the laundry.) Jack puts his guns away in the safe and finally sets his visor aside.

Gabriel turns the ring over in his palm, wondering what that idiot is thinking. Jack can’t be thinking. Not even the farm boy is this stupid.

Or maybe he is because Jack hovers next to the bed.

“Lie down already,” Gabriel says. “You’re making me feel tired.”

Jack does, but leaves an unnatural space between them.

“What is this, even?”

Jack plays dumb, humming a questioning sound back.

“The ring, asshole.”

“An engagement ring." Jack's words are half to Gabriel, half spoken into his pillow. "Tried to make that clear when I proposed.”

Gabriel holds the ring up, trying to find something in the metal to dispute Jack’s words. Silver, gold, and black metal braiding together in a thick band. It fit Gabriel’s ring finger perfectly and he has so many questions he doesn’t dare voice. “Thought those were supposed to have diamonds.”

“Gold for when we met, black gold for all that we’ve endured, platinum for the rest of our lives,” Jack says, voice more rough than usual. “Wanted something special for you.”

Moments like this, Gabriel is grateful Jack can’t see him blushing. “You’re a dork.”

“Yep.”

“We shouldn’t.”

Jack lifts his head from the pillow. “Why not?”

“You’re not actually an idiot, Jack,” Gabriel says. “Maybe when you first got the damn thing, but you can’t just start loving me again like nothing ever happened.”

Jack faces him with sightless, tired eyes. “I never stopped loving you, Gabe. When did I ever get a chance too?”

“It’s been decades.”

“We were either fighting or I thought you were dead. And then we were fighting again.” Jack shifts and lays back down, a few inches closer than before. “Didn’t have the time to stop loving you.”

Gabriel doesn’t want to think about those years leading up to the final days in Zurich. He recalls the fights and yelling and anger.

It’s hard to imagine Jack still in love then. Jack never did even as much as point the finger at Gabriel when the politics got messy. He could have, and Gabriel often wondered when Jack would cave and save his own ass. Even had multiple contingency plans to take Jack down with him, so certain Jack would.

Jack was so angry then and so was Gabriel. Who could look back on those days and thinks _love_?

“Are you bullshitting me?” Gabriel asks, fiddling with the ring.

He’s almost glad to hear only snores in response. Gabriel hasn’t doubted his reading of Jack like that since the early months of SEP.

(And if Gabriel can’t remember when he fell out of love with Jack or started loving him again...well, no one has to know _that_. He’s sure that happened at some point.)

 

* * *

 

He doesn’t _avoid_ Jack in the following weeks. He just doesn’t bring up the proposal. Or the ring. Or whatever the fuck is between them.

They work fine together…and apart. He’s fine working separate missions for the monkey’s nuWatch (as long as whoever is with Jack will cover the idiot’s ass).

This strange sense of distance between them is the true annoyance.

He doesn’t get it, either. They are still together, still sleep together, cook together, have their usual not-quite arguments that leave Gabriel smiling more often than not. They are far closer than they have been in decades.

But sometimes, Gabriel can’t help but look at Jack and wonder how can he want this?

_How can he still want me?_

The ring is a heavy weight in his pocket.

 

* * *

 

A month later, Gabriel watches Jack grumble and bitch his way to the coffee machine, blindly weaving around the kids that make up Overwatch these days.

He decides as Jack makes his way back, a coffee mug in each hand.

“Fine.” He says, holding up his left hand.

Jack sets down the coffee on the counter and angles his head at Gabriel. “What?”

Gabriel brings Jack’s hands to his on left, letting him feel the shape of the ring.

Jack makes a choked sound in his throat and Gabriel is glad he can’t see Gabriel’s dopey grin. “I’m marrying your stupid ass,” Gabriel says. “But I am in charge planning the wedding.”

Jack’s face breaks into a wide smile and he grabs Gabriel by the waist, spinning him around, nearly knocking the coffee off the counter.

(Gabriel doesn’t quite shriek, but the sound he makes does draw the attention of every single agent in the kitchen.)

And maybe Gabriel is an idiot too, because he wraps his legs around Jack’s waist and leans in for a kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> Alternate summary: I really wanted to write Jack proposing to Gabriel. ~~There can never be enough fics of Jack proposing to Gabriel.~~ It veered a little more introspective and mildly angsty than I expected. 
> 
> The title comes from a poem by Nayyirah Waheed. [View here (tumblr link).](http://nayyirahwaheed.tumblr.com/post/164486113997/poem-from-salt-by-nayyirah-waheed).


End file.
